Children have long used basic water sprinkling implements such as garden hoses with hose nozzles and lawn sprinklers as a form of outdoor play in warm weather. The spray patterns provided by such devices are generally fixed or regular and repeated. While water spray may be intrinsically entertaining to the children, children are likely to become bored from the predictability of such devices in a short time. Moreover, such devices are non-interactive. Most operate continuously in the same way regardless of anything the child does.
A few attempts have been made in the past to offer some variety. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,170,171 discloses a shower hoop for outdoor play in which an oversized hoop 3 is provided to loop over a base 2 having a pair of ramp surfaces 7 and 8, which lead through the loop.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,785 discloses another sprinkler spray toy which includes a base 12 having an upward facing nozzle 16 and a generally conically-shaped deflector 14, which can be placed upon the base covering the nozzle. Water passes uninterruptedly through the nozzle, upwardly into the open conical bottom of the deflector. The force of the water lifts the deflector into the air where it balances on the head of the water stream. The deflector can be formed as a combined impeller/sprinkler. The deflector is rotated by the water column while at the same time spraying water outwardly in a circular pattern.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,526,366 discloses an electronic water ejecting game which includes a base (12), a cover (14), a plurality of nozzles (40) and a like plurality of electrically actuated valves (V), which fluidly couple each nozzle to a central water coupling (48). The game has four player stations, each including, in addition to one of the spray nozzles, a connected valve switch (S1-S4) and light (L1-L4). The valves, lights and switches are all coupled together through an electronic cabinet (26), which is located on the base beneath the cover, and which includes a processor for responding to various switched depressions to determine which valve is to be actuated and which light is to be illuminated. Game play is controlled through the processor, which determines through a probability algorithm, which valve is to be operated in response to any switch depression or multiple switch depressions. The device provides warning through the light to the player whose valve is selected for actuation and provides a momentary time period for that player to depress his own switch to restart the process so as to select another valve for actuation. The device requires buttons on the surface of the cover to be hand actuated, necessitating the players to be huddled around the device. It further requires the provision of an AC power supply which further adds to the cost and may be dangerous in combination with water and children. Lastly, the water supply is provided through the bottom of the base suggesting that the base must be elevated off the ground and an opening provided in the supporting surface to permit a water connection into the bottom of the base of the device.
It would be very desirable to provide an interactive water play toy which can be made immediately available for use outdoors merely by coupling the toy with a conventional water source such as an ordinary garden hose and which does not require the provision of an AC electrical source and the potential hazards which can accompany the use of such an electrical source around water.